Fault Lines

Grappling With Segregation In Our Schools

"At My Neighbor's Table Series"

For Questions, or problems joining the zoom meeting, please email: atmyneighborstable@gmail.com

Sunday, March 21, 2021. 5:30 - 7:00 PM

This event is Free but limited (Please sign on by 5:15 PM)

Kindly register by noon Friday, March 19.

Event Zoom link will be sent upon registration.

Donations welcome! tinyurl.com/givetocmm

Following short presentations by Liam Kerr and Rep. Chynah Tyler, we will explore and discuss the high levels of K-12 school segregation in our communities, the detrimental impacts and what can be done to build a better educational experience for our children.

About the Presenters

Liam Kerr, MA State Dir., Democrats For Education Reform.

Through the Policy for Progress initiative, Liam organized a report on school segregation in Massachusetts with the national school finance equity nonprofit EdBuild.

Liam is a Needham native, a NHS Class of 2001 graduate and has two young sons that will be entering NPS. After beginning his career with AmeriCorps, Liam worked in the nonprofit sector and has led several advocacy initiatives locally and nationally for Democrats For Education Reform, No Boston Olympics, and The Welcome Party. He has a BA from Providence College and an MBA from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business.

Rep. Chynah Tyler (D), 7th Suffolk, Chair, Black & Latino Legislative Caucus.

In 2016, at age 26, State Rep. Chynah Tyler ran a successful campaign to succeed the long-time incumbent. She is the current Chair of the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus and the Boston Delegation. Recently she filed a bill to create commission studying school segregation.

Chynah was born and raised in Roxbury. She credits programs offered to her as a child with giving her the authentic sense of pride she feels as a Roxbury native. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with a minor in Law, Policy, and Society from Northeastern University. She began her career as a Case Manager for Federal Inmates. From that experience, she grew to understand the importance of state government's role in delivering valuable resources to the most vulnerable populations.

Notable Prior Event on School Segregation:

See below to view the Panel discussion on Segregation and Suburban Schools sponsored by METCO & FORJ that occured on March 11

Background materials (optional):

• Comparison of Segregation and Disparities in public schools of Boston and Needham, Massachusetts. - Policy for Progress

• Massachusetts’ public schools are highly segregated. It’s time we treated that like the crisis it is - Boston Globe

• Here Is What School Integration in America Looks Like Today - Century Foundation

• The data proves that school segregation is getting worse - Vox

"The many crises we are now undergoing are layered atop of an existing public education landscape that was already highly unequal and segregated. Sixty-six years after Brown v. Board of Education, ... Nationwide, two out of five Black and Latinx students attend schools where more than 90 percent of their classmates are non-White, while one in five White students attends a school where more than 90 percent of students are also White.

Unlike a virus, school segregation and education inequality are not products of nature: they are the result of ... conscious decisions by lawmakers—combined with individual choices that families make. Through deliberate policies and practices, however, it is possible ... to build a better education system that gives students access to diverse learning environments, equitable resources, and school cultures that affirm their identities." The Century Foundation

Sponsors: These groups have come together to support this event .

Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries, Needham Baha’i Community, Christ Episcopal Church, Congregational Church of Needham UCC, First Baptist Church in Needham, First Parish in Needham Unitarian Universalist, Temple Beth Shalom, Wellesley Friends Meeting, Equal Justice Needham, Inclusive Westwood, League of Women Voters Needham, Needham Diversity Initiative, Needham Human Rights Committee, Neighbors In Action, Progressive Dedham/Norwood/Westwood, Progressive Needham, World of Wellesley.